Torah'Mari
Founder of the weapons firm Nu-Cycle Manufacturing, Torah'Mari is a self-made quarian with an aptitude for gunsmithing. A child of the Tonbay and former resident of the Usela, he has chosen to leave the Migrant Fleet and live as a part of the galaxy at large. Biography Torah’Mari was born and raised aboard the Tonbay within the Migrant Fleet. Throughout his youth, he displayed a sense of curiosity and positivity, always looking to learn more about new things and find the best things about them. In spite of his generally upbeat mood, Torah was generally self-reliant when he could afford to be, and grew more introverted and attached to his own devices as he neared adulthood. He left on his pilgrimage at the age of 18 without leaving much of a mark on the Tonbay. Upon entering the greater galaxy, the plethora of knowledge and experience all other aliens and planets had to offer overwhelmed Torah. Always more concerned more with his journey than ever returning to the Fleet, he made an effort to move around as often as possible. He made a regular habit of scavenging and recycling scrap metals and resources when he had the chance in order to support himself, and lived rather frugally to prolong his ventures with as few stops as possible. Unfortunately, this way of life was not a permanent solution for Torah’s expenses and needs. He eventually tried finding work that provided its own hospitality and the opportunity to keep traveling, but his unwillingness to commit long-term to any one job yielded little more than quick one-and-done jobs with low pay. This soon led to carefully selected mercenary work, which pulled Torah deep into the Terminus Systems for some years. Although his work was bringing in decent pay, Torah had little to do between finding his next job. One incident left him with a broken weapon, however, and in hopes of saving funds for something other than a replacement, he managed to repair it with his collection of unused scrap metals and recycled junk. After this successful endeavor, Torah began making a hobby of collecting cheap weapon schematics and trying to construct them himself after some scavenging. While this did make for good and productive use of his free time, it became apparent that, at this point, he was going nowhere fast on his pilgrimage or search for greater success. A few years into his time in the Terminus Systems, Torah stumbled across another quarian on one of his jobs, Hari’Talizh nar Rayya. Though their meeting was chance, the two became fast friends and brought their resources together to help one another find work and get by. As they stayed by each other’s side, though, the two found they shared a fondness for craftsmanship, among other things, and built up a bond based on more than the search for more work. Before long, the two had signs of one another’s handiwork in each of their suits, between Torah’s technological modifications and Hari’s fabric recuts and patterns. After a near-death experience by an infected gunshot wound, Torah sat out from finding another mercenary job for a while, focusing more on recovery and his crafting hobby. Hari convinced him to put in the effort to find a safer line of work where he might be able to put his constructive skills to use, but the two were unsuccessful in the weeks to follow. As their resources dwindled, they considered it might be a good time to focus on their respective pilgrimages once more, and return to the communal haven of the Migrant Fleet. Additionally, they began talk of raising a child upon their return. After nearly a decade on Pilgrimage, Torah finally collated coordinates to various points in the galaxy where he had benefited greatly for salvage, one of which included an old vessel he believed could either be restored or scrapped for valuable parts and presented them to the captain of the Usela, back at the Migrant Fleet. While not the most ideal idea of a gift, Torah remained optimistic about it. Without much of a reputation to live up to either, the captain accepted the information and welcomed him aboard the Usela’s crew. Hari joined the same vessel, and not long after settling in, the two bore a daughter, Nora’Mari nar Usela. Torah’s life over the next few years was unrecognizable from its previous state, but he was glad to have built a family and concluded a long journey. Though, while he was well equipped to raise Nora within the Usela’s walls, Torah couldn’t help but feel a nagging sense that, after years of traveling and experiencing the galaxy at large, he was now stuck in place. In time, he spoke with Hari about the feeling, and the two began wondering how they might fare to raise a family outside of the Fleet, perhaps even with more than one child to have their own small community. There was no doubt between them that it would be no easy feat, but Torah devoted time toward research and calculations to fully evaluate their options. An opportunity finally caught his attention, with the newly founded colony of Noveria, partially owned and run by Elanus Risk Control Services. With his experience in mercenary work and familiarity with other species, Torah was able to remotely apply for work and settlement under ERCS with request for a month to relocate. When their opportunity was secured, he and Hari took their chance to conceive a second child within the Usela’s safe rooms. When the two finally departed the Usela, Torah spent every credit he had leftover to his name to build a safe, sterile environment within their new home. He made sure there was ample space for one more, but was surprised when Hari bore twins, two sons they named Zolo and Velor. Their home would become more crowded than originally expected, but Torah and Hari both continued to work at and modify their environment over the years with any credits they could save between living expenses and medical precautions. Over the years, Torah slowly abandoned his crafting hobbies to make more time for his job and family. Hari secured the same job, and the two scheduled carefully to ensure at least one was always home. Noveria served as their home for a full decade, as Nora grew up playing with any of her father’s technology he deemed safe, while Zolo and Velor proved time after time to be a challenging but entertaining handful to have around. Although Torah was once again living in one place over a lengthy period of time, Noveria brought in races from all across the galaxy with their own knowledge, experience, and resources to share, and that was satisfying enough for him. Tragedy struck the family though, when ERCS fought a security threat that claimed Hari’s life. The sudden loss of his beloved partner and the massive increase in responsibility that Torah had to pick up without her was a challenge he could hardly cope with. It was clear even to his children that he was overwhelmed. Nora began picking up her own share of caretaking responsibilities for herself and her younger brothers, which only increased as their father slowly grew more distant. A lot of internal conflict began to broil at the thought of continuing to work for ERCS. The job, and even the world itself, began to wear down on him. He wanted different work, preferably someplace far away. Though it was a stretch, Torah soon moved his family to a station orbiting the planet Korlus, where he completely rebuilt the sterile home he had left behind, and picked up work in a recycling plant. The complete change in work and his environment did help Torah move on from the past, but he also found that his net income was reduced. In search of a new way to supplement his finances, he began picking up his crafting hobbies again, borrowing from the many scrap heaps of Korlus to fabricate weapons and gadgets. Whether by an increase in skill over the years, or just an effort to keep himself moving in newer, better directions, Torah’s craftsmanship began yielding new modifications and enhancements to the weapons he was building. He ultimately planned to begin selling his recycled fabrications as side work, but as he grew more invested in developing new technology, Torah began wondering if he could open his own shop entirely, with its own stock of unique equipment. On a whim, and a guess at his rather small market success so far, Torah quit his job and founded Nu-Cycle Manufacturing, a shop where he built and sold weapons and gadgets of his own making from recycled materials gathered from across Korlus. Although it started rather small, every year he was able to draw in more customers and used his increasing profits to hire more hands and build devices to speed up production. Though it was no competitor to the major weapons manufacturers of other worlds, NCM was able to gain a small, dedicated consumer base that kept it in good business. Some of his funding was also used to acquire a carefully measured enviro-suit for Nora, as she reached full maturity. A few years into the company’s life, Torah met Aro Dumock, a volus tradesman with a lot of connections around Korlus and its nearest colonies. Seeking opportunities of their own, the two partnered, allowing NCM’s growth to rise exponentially. Although the company was still relatively small, its consumer base and productivity shot upward in tandem, almost pushing past what Torah could manage himself. Not the most esteemed businessman, Torah made a deal with Aro a year into their partnership, which would effectively make the volus the CEO of NCM, and allow Torah himself to step back and focus almost exclusively on designing and prototyping the company’s products. The breath of fresh air Torah found in his sudden decrease in responsibilities hit him in a number of impactful ways. The chance to forget about business and marketing allowed him the freedom to enjoy creating new devices, again. To his regret though, Nora had been more of a parent to Zolo and Velor than him in recent years, and all three felt some disdain for his distance. In an effort to reconnect with his children, Torah asked all three to help him design something new. Working from technology Torah had based on his own suit and the equipment that kept their home a safe and sterile environment, they were able to build custom enviro-suits for the nearly matured twins. In the interest of her own custom cosmetic, like her brothers, Nora helped her father build a new suit for herself, as well. Torah later used his work on his children’s suits to design a line of armor that NCM soon sold. After years of struggling to find peace in his life again, Torah had a mostly happy balance between marketable productivity, interaction with various alien peoples, and time for his family, though there were still some challenges to overcome in fully regaining his children’s love. With the slowly increasing rise in remote trade, business running well in Aro’s hands, his twins on the brink of adulthood, and Nora considering taking a traditional quarian pilgrimage of her own, Torah did occasionally find windows of time with little to worry about in his life. Perhaps it was an urge to travel again, or possibly a realization of the need to rid himself of a lot of bottled-up turmoil gathered throughout the years, but every so often, he began filling out these brief periods by taking up short-term mercenary contracts once again. Personality Torah is a hard-working quarian who prefers not to ask anyone to help carry the burdens he believes he can manage on his own. Although he stands independently, he believes in supporting his galactic community, and often acts on principle to the betterment of the people and worlds around him. Every person, creature, and object Torah comes across has positive aspects he can pick out, and he will make an effort to highlight the values he can see. In his mind, the sum of an object’s parts can always be put to good use; he encourages his peers to identify and utilize their strengths, and he tries to do the same with any devices available to him. Torah loves to tinker with such devices in his downtime, and is quite resourceful overall. In spite of Torah’s general sense of optimism, he struggles to dwell on foul or saddening thoughts. While he does his best to tackle modern problems within his grasp, he is quietly haunted by ghosts of his past. When presented with a moral conundrum or questionable conflict of interests, Torah may lock up or lose his confidence, often to furthered detriment. His most common method of moving past problems he could not resolve tends to be ignoring them as they grow less relevant, sometimes invoking great change in his life to help do so, but it can be quite clear at times how bottled up he truly is. Physical Description Torah’Mari is more muscular than the average quarian, though he is no taller than most of his fellow people. The face behind his dark mask has shapely, almost exotic features that can be vaguely made out with a close look through his visor. Certain pronunciations in his wording can indicate a stark overbite in his covered jaw. His eyes do not glow as brightly as other quarians beneath his visor, but their natural shape almost suggests a grin. The enviro-suit Torah wears has had extensive external and internal modifications over the years, with marks of his own handiwork present in most of its non-standard aspects. Most of the armor’s aesthetics have been disregarded in favor of more pockets, convenient clips for tools, and some reforged plating. The most obvious changes include more defensive plating over his left arm and shoulder, and the addition of a smoked visor hinged over the original atop his helmet. While the majority of the metals in Torah’s suit are a dark shade of grey, many of its replaced and altered components maintain their respective metals’ original colors, some silver or off-grey, and others a rusted brown. The decorative cloths covering his suit’s plating have also had some pieces augmented and fixed with irregular patches, while other pieces are completely replaced with atypical cuts. These cloths are natively a faded shade of blue, with hexagonal dark blue patterns. Many of its patches, alternatively, are off-colors such as red and green. Torah’s omni-tool exhibits a modified hue in its holograms as well, which glow white when active. Armament Torah is never far away from his own personal weapons, an aging and heavily modified Hurricane shotgun and a Sidewinder heavy pistol. His omni-tool is equipped with the Combat Abilities Cryo Blast, Flamethrower and Overload, and his envronmental suit is equipped with Tech Armor generators. Category:Quarians Category:Characters Category:The Tonbay Category:The Usela Category:Elanus Risk Control Services Category:Nu-Cycle Manufacturing